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Something that I find problematic is the argument to not digitize the humanities to preserve exclusivity and/or access to information and education. I think that everyone should have access to information, education, and the humanities so that they can grow their knowledge on the human experience, thus gaining empathy and sympathy for others. Especially now, I feel that the world really needs to be educated on the human condition, the humanities in general, and the digital humanities, as empathy and sympathy is very low at the moment (I feel). Giving access to all through digital platforms allows for that knowledge to be spread easily. However, if humanities are to be fully digitized, teaching people what reliable sources are is a necessity. "Fake news" and false information is everywhere, so training people what valid research, scholarly sources, and reliable (secondary and primary) sources are is crucial. The good news is that teaching people about reliable research can also be done digitally, thus playing into the digital humanities concept. 

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This article is good explaining how the humanities have and need to evolve--definitely will be using this in my thesis. I think I will create a whole new section on digital humanities and how they play into the classroom.

1) Research Methods: Research was conducted via many outlets, including scholarly and non scholarly research. Furthermore, the creating of this DH project provides primary AND secondary research and products within their website portal. For example, this portal provides scholarly and peer reviewed sources about the character Sherlock Holmes, as well as some primary documents following Arthur Conan Doyle and his writings, including some letters he had written while writing about the popular character Sherlock Holmes. Research maintained a plethora and diversity when regarding resources and research; the portal provides interactive elements such as games, videos, and chat groups surrounding this popular mystery character. The research was conducted by mostly students, led by WIDE faculty, academic specialists, and graduate students.

2) The output or product that was created serves as a total to many different sources, games, videos, facts, and anything surrounding the character Sherlock Holmes. This is a website with a diverse set of pages, links, and graphics to lead the reader to interact with the page. One of my favorite things that this portal provided was an educator and teachings page, where lesson plans and activities could be used by a teacher for free in their lessons.

3) The audience for this DH project is broad, which I like. I am a Sherlock Holmes fan myself, so it was no surprise that fans like myself stumbled across the page and had interest in it. Besides fans of the most popular mystery detective character, educators and scholars share interest in the page too, as there are many academic scholarly sources and lessons/activities that can be used in the classroom.

The other DH project that I was interested in was the Suffrage: Women Fight for the Vote
 (Links to an external site.) project. Like the Baltimore project discussed above, this project uses many historical documents and includes other contributors historical contributions/documents that focus on women's suffrage and important women in history. For example, there are links to many personal papers of influential women like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary Church Terrell, Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna E. Dickinson, Lucy Stone, and Alice Stone Blackwell. Furthermore, I appreciate the fact that the contributors of this project were hosting a December Suffrage Review challenge that celebrated 2020 being the 100 year anniversary of the approval of the 19th amendment. By looking at the design of the website, I loved that there was a section where it was listed documents/contributions that had been listed as completed for review, as well as listed as needs review. I thought that the addition of those documents allowed for additional research to be done and more areas of this topic to be explored. I followed one of the quick links that lead me to the Library of Congress Suffrage Exhibition
 (Links to an external site.) page. This exhibit can be explored online from the comfort of your home, which I appreciated, and I had a good time exploring a museum for homework. Though I would've liked to see an exhibit like this in person, the online version was still super effective. 

I was very impressed with both of these DH projects so I am a little intimidated if I were to create a project of my own. There were so many extra and useful resources made with additional links to follow. It was like creating a digital museum or database to explore many different types of information to keep the reader entertained. Both DH projects were easily maneuverable and I had a really easy and fun time clicking in different directions and exploring multiple corners of the websites. Providing accessibility for the readers allows for more room for interest to grow I think.

I would like to note, however, that adding parental controls and limitations on using parts of the internet is problematic, as younger generations are getting better and better at overcoming these steps of limitation. Because there are hardly any limitations on using the internet, I have a concern of keeping students engaged in the learning material that takes place online. Keeping students focused allows for limitations on internet usage (i.e. they won't become distracted if they are engaged in the educational material). 

In essence Pecha Kucha is an interesting way of making a formal presentation. Some uses of it may be copywrited. Therefore, we are going to do a Peka Chuka “like” presentation, in other words, using some of the concepts, but not actually signing up for or becoming a member of the Pecha Kucha world. Basically, this will be exactly 20 slides with no more than 20 seconds per slide. You can go to the link below to learn more.

Assignment Part 1: Pick the organization that you are going to do your case on. You will do this in one of the first Discussion Boards. See specifics in the DB.

Assignment Part 2: Pecha Kucha Dress Rehearsal of your final presentation. This is very important as you will get feedback from your peers that will help you to do a better job. You will also get to see how others are doing it and get ideas from them. 

Assignment Part 3: Your final Case Study Presentation: You will submit your final Panopto Recording for grading and feedback. See specifics in the Assignment labeled Big Case Study. The Discussion Board Dress Rehearsal presentation and The Final Case Study will be done by creating a Panopto recording and then submitting it.